Economy 20 February 2017, 3:26pm

Hungary's Orbán announces national consultation of five threats

Portfolio

The government has created the economic and political balance of the year 2016, and has also drawn up its economic and political plans for 2017, having identified the risks and threats, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has told MPs in Parliament in an address before the agenda of the cabinet’s first meeting in the spring session.

The PM has first described the country’s economic performance and this year’s targets in numbers.

Facts of the economy showed last year that the Hungarian economic model is working. The government has met its economic goals of 2016

, Orbán said.

Then he went on talking about wage hikes, mentioning the significant raise to the minimum wage and wage hike programmes in the public sector.

2017 - The year of home creation

This year is the year of creating homes, Orbán said, adding that this is a “national matter". So far, 36,000 families have requested the family housing allowance (CSOK) to the tune of over HUF 87 billion. A total of HUF 211 billion have been earmarked for this purpose this year.

Orbán has also noted that the first government-supported electric car has already been delivered, adding that the cabinet hopes 30,000 of those will be marketed by 2020.

The budget for economic development has been raised to HUF 2,430 billion in 2017.

Immigration

Protecting the borders remains a priority national security matter, the PM said.

In his view, support for the establishment of refugee camps outside the EU border is growing within the bloc, adding that this was originally a Hungarian idea. There is no majority view on this matter yet, but this is the direction things are going, Orbán added.

Those who have entered must be taken out [of the country], and those who want to enter must be detained and selected outside the border

, he added.

Five threats - three of which are Brussels

The government has identified five threats for Hungary in 2017. It is not difficult to guess what these are:

Brussels putting the crimp in the government-mandated utility tariff reductions;
illegal migration;
danger posed by organisations financed from abroad;
Brussels contesting Hungary’s tax reductions;
Brussels contesting job-creating programmes.

This year’s “new national policy" will protect Hungary from these five threats; it will protect the achievements and the merits achieved.

For a successful defense, we need agreement therefore the cabinet will announce a national consultation on these matters

, Orbán concluded.